To take a single step beyond the text would be to take possession of a boundless field of power.

No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.

It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.

It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.

A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims.